


Inamorata

by Butterfly



Series: A Perfect Possible Future [4]
Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2003-07-22
Updated: 2003-07-22
Packaged: 2017-10-17 13:27:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,015
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/177315
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Butterfly/pseuds/Butterfly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tara finds a connection.</p><p>Set post-<i>Chosen</i>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Inamorata

It started out as a way to comfort herself. She would watch, but not too closely and never in private moments.

She wasn't trying to torture herself, after all. She just missed Willow and the others. Missed seeing the little jokes and intimacies of life.

She watched as they won the battle, she watched as they changed the world.

She watched as they slowly separated and grew apart.

Giles was the first to distance himself, going back home to England to help gather resources. She was surprised to see Willow follow him after a few weeks, leaving her young lover behind. Eventually, after they came back to America, to California, and she saw Willow and Giles become WillowandGiles, she lost the will to watch them.

Watching the others was only joyful. Seeing Buffy and Xander grow close. Seeing Dawn grow up. Seeing the young women who'd been under Buffy's charge become fighters, teachers, and healers. Even their small pains were only bumps on the road to greater happiness.

But there was one other in particular who drew her attention.

At first, watching Faith had been like watching any of the others. Though she hadn't really known the woman, she'd known Faith's aura. In Buffy's body, it had been bent and torn; wholly unnatural. In her own, it sparkled with a brilliant rainbow of power and emotion.

Willow had never been able to see auras, no matter how much power she'd collected. Tara had never been able to _not_ see them.

And when Faith's aura was in the right place, it glowed with an energy that Tara couldn't ignore. So when watching Willow was too painful, she mostly watched Faith.

She'd seen the brief flare of Faith's love for Wood and mourned because it wouldn't last. When the romance had ended, she'd found herself trying to cheer up Faith, though she knew from hard experience that she couldn't interact with the living.

Knowing that, it had been a complete shock the day that Faith answered.

It had been a routine day, nothing unusual. Faith had gone clubbing but had gone home alone, as she did most often these days. Tara had been saying her usual meaningless words of comfort when Faith looked up. Looked directly at her.

"I know you." Tara remembered being completely flustered by the response. She'd tried to sit down, going right through the chair and ending up sprawled on the floor, wondering once again why she never fell though that. Faith had smiled, but sympathetically. "I've seen you for a while, but I thought I was just going crazy. Am I?"

"Not... not as far as I know." She'd beamed back at Faith, trying to communicate her sheer pleasure at being seen through her smile.

Faith had looked away for a little bit and she'd laughed before she started talking again. "I can't hear you, though. I can almost tell what you're saying, but there's no sound."

Well, Tara had known from the start that the rules of being dead made no sense at all, so the news shouldn't have surprised her. Still, it had presented a problem. She couldn't move things, so she couldn't write out what she was saying. She hadn't known what to do, until she'd remembered a spell that translated thoughts into words.

Of course, first she'd had to figure out how to tell Faith about the spell. Then, she'd had to get Faith to do the spell. Luckily, it didn't require an experienced witch, just someone with innate power. Slayers walked around with more power inside than any other mortal that she'd ever seen.

It turned out to be easier than she'd thought. Faith quickly decided to ask yes or no questions, which Tara could answer understandably enough.

Still, while she'd known that Faith was lonely, Tara had been surprised at how quickly Faith agreed to do the spell. They'd never known each other when she'd been alive, not really.

The next two days had been the tensest of her afterlife, as she watched Faith get all the ingredients for the spell together.

She'd known that the spell would work, but was still surprised to see Faith react to her thoughts and not just her presence. She'd been so thrilled that she'd tried to hug Faith and she'd been further shocked when they'd connected.

She'd still been able to travel through walls and through other people, but to Faith, she was solid.

Time passed. Tara could never sure of how much, since she couldn't really tell day from night anymore. It was always bright where she was and dark where she wasn't, like she let off light that only she could see.

Time passed and she got to know Faith.

They talked about Faith's 'wild' past and Faith told her that it hadn't ever been as wild as she'd made it out to be.

They talked about Tara's childhood, her mother, and how she became a witch. She started to teach Faith how to connect with her inner power and how to control it.

Faith started staying home from the clubs and spending her evenings with Tara.

As afterlives went, Tara couldn't complain.

Of course, nothing stays the same forever. On the night when things changed, Faith was trying out a new spell and she'd dropped a cookie into the pot, ruining it. Tara had laughed and moved closer, simply enjoying the shiver of being able to feel someone near her.

"Toadstool and oatmeal cookies not required." She'd joked. Faith had turned to look at her and Tara had been aware in a way that she hadn't felt since… well, since the last kiss of her life. She hadn't been able to move, even though she'd known that she should.

And Faith had broken that golden, frozen moment and touched her lips against Tara's.

It had been amazing, to feel warmth against lips that hadn't felt anything for years. After a second of just letting the heat sink in, she'd kissed back.

Even knowing what a bad idea it was, Tara couldn't have made herself break away.


End file.
